Battling Tampines lose out to Bali in Champions League

A new season has officially begun. After an 8 month break, continental football returned to Singapore this evening as Tampines Rovers took on Indonesian Liga 1 champions Bali United in the 2020 Asian Champions League. For what is arguably the biggest game of the season for Singaporean club teams, there was surprisingly little build up to the game and I count myself lucky to have been reminded about the fixture by my phone. So, with my belly full of scissor cut curry rice (check out Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry a few minutes walk from the stadium) and a couple of Tigers to get me in the mood I headed to the stadium along with a significant number of fans who had also somehow heard about the game.

The Tampines Rovers starting 11 against Bali United

12 minutes in and I was starting to wish I'd stayed at home. Not only had Bali United gone two up but the vocal travelling support had also started singing "you'll never walk alone". As an Everton fan it felt like an unnecessary insult to injury. Tampines Rovers hadn't made the best of starts. The fact that it is halfway through the Singaporean pre-season might explain the sluggish performance in the first half but that still doesn't excuse the sloppy defending which ended with the first goal. Irwan Shah passed the ball straight to the impressive Melvin Platje who then executed an exquisite lob over the stranded Tampines Rovers keeper Zulfairuuz Rudy. Three minutes later Stefano Lilipaly knocked the ball behind the static Tampines defence, setting up Platje to score his second of the night. The Stags were being torn apart, they couldn't handle Bali's incisive play and the Indonesian champs were able to get behind Tampines' back-line at will. Bali were pressing well, putting pressure on the Tampines defence which seemed to me to be playing too high up the pitch, leaving too much space in behind and reducing the amount of time they had on the ball. Tampines seemed to lack shape both defensively and going forward. It was obvious that they miss Ryutaro Megumi on the right hand side. Madhu Mohana was asked to offer width from full back which left holes at the back and Mehmedovic was also pulled out of the centre of midfield to try and fill the Megumi size hole on the right without much success. Tampines looked more threatening when the pink pony-tailed Jordan Webb switched wings momentarily but the fact remains that it does not look like the Stags currently have the players to employ 3 up front.

It was my first opportunity to see new Tampines signing Boris Kopitovic. I had completely missed any news of his transfer so knew very little about him. The only information I had was incorrect, that he was Macedonian, he is actually from Montenegro. The big striker introduced himself to the crowd in the first minute of the game with a powerful run into the box followed by a wild shot over the bar. Otherwise he was quiet for long periods of the first half, seemingly looking for a way to fit into the Tampines Rovers system. As halftime approached it was Kopitovic's turn to drift out to the right wing to fill the space. The 1.89m striker picked up the ball close to the touchline with his back to goal, he showed great strength to turn his marker, Leonard Tupamahu, and then held him off as he headed towards the Bali United goal. It looked like a repeat of the chance he had in the first minute, but instead of thrashing at the ball, the 25 year old calmly placed the ball into the back of the net. The goal came at the perfect time, 2 minutes before the break, and sparked huge celebrations on and off the pitch with Kopitovic embracing members of the coaching team, delighted to have scored on his debut.

The goal changed the whole atmosphere in the stadium. At 2-0 down it looked like there was no way back for Tampines, at 2-1 there was still hope. The stags came out for the second half and looked to have been rejuvenated. For the first time in the game they were closing down the opposition and started playing the ball around quickly, finding space that wasn't there before. A large reason for this was the fact that Mehmedovic was no longer being asked to provide width to the team but instead was encouraged to roam around the middle pulling the strings and showing some incredible touches. Mehmedovic's control and pass in the 53rd minute was perhaps the best bit of skill in the game. He fed the ball through to Jordan Webb who finished superbly to equalise for Tampines. 10 minutes later the turnaround was complete. Mehmedovic again pulling the strings in midfield, this time running with the ball and drawing the opposition to him before sliding the ball to Kopitovic, who had again drifted out wide. The striker drilled a low, dangerous cross into the six yard box that the Bali defence could not deal with. The ball bounced around for a while, hitting the keeper a few times before being bundled into the back of his own net by Rachmat. The celebrations centred on Mehmedovic, the young Serbian had turned the game on its head in the first 20 minutes of the half. Zehrudin Mehmedovic's creativity was often on show last season but last night he showed an added dimension to his game in the second half, the young Serbian was working hard in the middle and showed bite in his tackles, taking the fight to a Bali United midfield that had seemed to physically dominate during the first half. Mehmedovic has recently signed a contract extension to keep him in Singapore for another year and Tampines fans should feel lucky to have this quality player for another season or so.

Mehmedovic's creativity is well known but he showed he also has more physical side to his game last night.

Tampines needed to hold on for another 25 minutes to seal a famous win for the Stags and Singaporean football. It was obvious that the Indonesian team was going to throw everything they had at Tampines so I was a little surprised when Joel Chew was bought on in the 75th minute. The young midfielder has bags of energy and creativity but was perhaps not best suited for the physical battle that was to come. Less than 10 minutes later Bali were level, Rachmat making amends for his earlier own goal thanks to Stefano Lilipaly's second assist of the night. Tampines had captain Daniel Bennett and their goalkeeper to thank for not conceding any more in an exciting second half of football. Zulfairuuz Rudy made up for his mistake with the first goal, making a couple of excellent saves. Indeed Tampines could have won it in stoppage time when the otherwise quiet Kyoga Nakamura skipped through the midfield and laid the ball off for Kopitovic whose shot from a tight angle was well saved.

3-3 after 90 minutes. The stadium announcer thanked everyone for coming and wished them all a safe journey home before correcting himself a few minutes later when he realised that extra time and possibly "kicks from the penalty line" were needed to decide who would be getting the trip to Melbourne. A handful of fans had already left before he corrected himself and with hindsight I wish the game had indeed finished after 90. Tampines looked exhausted, none more so than Kopitovic who looked so full of cramp that he could barely run, although to be fair he did continue to put a decent shift in during extra time. The signs were bad for Tampines with Bali again getting behind the defence on a number of occasions and hitting the post early in the first period of extra time. 10 minutes into extra time it was the impressive Lilipaly who got a goal to add to his two assists. Platje, whose two early goals now seemed like hours ago, combined nicely with Sergio, playing a crisp one-two to set Sergio free on the left of the box. Sergio crossed/shot across the face of goal and Lilipaly was in the right place at the right time to score. My first impression was that Lilipaly was offside but without the magic of VAR there was no check and we had to rely on the Jordanian linesman's opinion. Bali United had already had a goal ruled out for a questionable offside in the second half so perhaps it is fair to give them this one.

Tampines Rovers continued to battle all the way to the end. Subsitute Taufik Suparno almost scored a wonderful overhead kick that was well saved and Kyoga Nakamura forced another good save with a curling free-kick that could have easily crept in. Tampines continued to push themselves to their limits in the second half of extra time but they didn't have much left in the tank. Worryingly, Tampines' 42 year old captain Daniel Bennett had a nasty looking fall and looked to have badly hurt his back. When Bali's fifth came at the end of extra time there was no coming back. Substitute Sidik Saimima's shot from outside the area found the bottom corner to the delight of the visiting fans.

Kyoga Nakamura almost scored with this freekick in extra time

Tampines can now look ahead to the AFC Cup group stages while Bali will travel to Melbourne for the next game in their quest for Champions League qualification. It was a fantastic start to another year of live football in Singapore and I can't wait for the next game. Thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date with Singaporean football, please follow me on Twitter @kevindunkerley or subscribe to this blog for updates.